Zimbabweans pessimistic on Mbeki mediation efforts

By Tichaona Sibanda
18 May 2007

Many Zimbabweans have played down hopes of progress from the latest efforts by South African President Thabo Mbeki to end the country’s deteriorating political crisis.

Mbeki told Parliament in Cape Town on Thursday that talks between the ruling party and the MDC were going on ‘very well,’ without elaborating further. The Zimbabwe Independent reported Friday that a South African mediation team recently held a crucial meeting with Robert Mugabe in a bid to kick-start multi-party dialogue.

Sources told the weekly paper that Mbeki had sent a delegation led by his Local Government minister Sydney Mufamadi to meet Mugabe and government officials. Their aim was to discuss modalities of the mediation process, designed to find a negotiated settlement to current political and economic problems.

But despite these latest efforts many Zimbabweans remain convinced that nothing will come out of the talks. In an interview with Newsreel on Friday Johannesburg based Zimbabwean economist Luke Zunga said he didn’t think Mbeki’s mediation would bring peace any closer and blamed Mugabe for stifling the proposed peace talks.

‘Personally, like any other Zimbabwean in the diaspora, I have little faith in the mediation effort. These proposed talks represent a showdown for Mugabe and we all know he doesn’t want to be second best. Both Mbeki and SADC lack enough resolve to deal with him,’ Zunga said.

Two months ago SADC leaders mandated Mbeki to find a lasting solution to Zimbabwe’s problems. So far he has had consultative meetings with both factions of the MDC and Zanu (PF) but there has been no open discussion and civic society has so far not been involved.